


remember these words i say (i won't let go of your hand)

by remi_mae



Series: Anthea Lin-Wayne [5]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Adopted Sibling Relationship, Batfamily (DCU), Gen, Jason Todd Swears, Protective Batfamily (DCU)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:20:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,211
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28159680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/remi_mae/pseuds/remi_mae
Summary: Newly adopted, Anthea Lin-Wayne has been adjusting to what that means. Her adoptive family is fantastic and wonderful and she loves them - there's no difference within the manor at all. But now that she's legally a Wayne, and people know that, how people treat her has... gotten to be a problem, sometimes. Thankfully, the Wayne family always has each others backs.Or, six times Anthea's family saves her, and one time she saves herself.
Relationships: Batfamily Members & Original Female Character(s)
Series: Anthea Lin-Wayne [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1511444
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Eeey, first chaptered fic! I only have two chapters finished thus far (and I have zero idea what I'm writing for Tim or Cass' chapters yet) but I've been working on this for a bit and I wanted to at least get what I have done up? Works exhausting so I haven't been writing too much lately, but I love writing about Anthea, so I'm trying. This supposed to be seven chapters, but could very well only be six, depending on plot bunnies and all that.
> 
> Title from Ateez's Promise, and this takes place a few weeks after Anthea's adoption (future chapters will take place after this, and if it's more than a few days to a week or two apart, I'll make note of that.)

Since the news of her formal adoption had come out, Anthea had begun to dread going to school, even more than usual.

When she had first started being fostered by Bruce, only a handful of people were actually aware of that fact - and outside of a few teachers, almost no one at Gotham Academy was aware of this fact, aside from Abbey, who she had told. She'd let Abbey tell a couple of people (and the fact that she always asked first made Anthea feel... kind of bad for her initial impression of her short term roommate) but Anthea could still count on one hand the number of students who knew for _certain_ that Anthea Lin was being fostered by Bruce Wayne.

Now though, the entire world knew. Even if someone at school (somehow) hadn't heard, it would be hard to miss that her name was now legally Anthea Lin-Wayne, matching her new siblings. She didn't particularly care if her teacher continued to call her Anthea Lin or started calling her Anthea Lin-Wayne, but it seemed like it took all of two days for her paperwork to be updated and for her name in the schools systems to be changed to Lin-Wayne.

Anthea didn't really care who knew about the adoption. It would have been kept more on the down low if she had; her name could have been kept out of it, they didn't need to make a big proper announcement, they could have left her surname alone. She adored her new family though, and she knew that the feeling was mutual, so she didn't particularly care who knew. She could do without the bombardment of questions asked and people trying to suck up to her though.

Some weren't too bad - a couple of classmates she was somewhat close to asked her how she liked the Wayne's, and how she liked living at Wayne Manor, simple enough questions. Simple things like that, things that had simple, straight forward answers were fine. Stuff about how she was adjusting, how she liked her adoptive family, asking about her and the Wayne's people, not as The Wayne's™. It was the more invasive questions that got to her.

Not only were they often just straight up inappropriate things to ask her, especially considering the people who were asking were effectively complete strangers, it was the frankly appalling sincerity with which her classmates would ask the questions. It was like they _genuinely_ didn't realize maybe they shouldn't be asking them.

Anthea could have gone her entire life without knowing some of the things people thought about her older siblings. Even if she wasn't asexual and rather uncomfortable with the topic of sex, Dick, Jason and Cass were her _siblings_ , something that didn't quite seem to register with some of her classmates.

Generally, Abbey redirected people away from asking those questions. She was much more of a people person than Anthea was, and had told her more than once that she was glad to do whatever she could to make sure Anthea wasn't made uncomfortable because of nosey classmates.

Anthea appreciated it more than words could say.

Abbey couldn't always be around though, and while a few other friends (namely Miri and Jemmie, twins who were in her English and chemistry classes respectively) tried to help, they weren't flawless. (They got an A for effort though, in Anthea's mind. Even just trying to change the topic, making it known that the questions weren't appropriate or welcome was more than Anthea expected from people.) Aside from Abbey, Emil was easily the best at either changing the topic and keeping it changed, or chasing people away. Abbey was more friendly about it, while Emil made sure it was obvious that what was being said was not acceptable and would not be accepted.

Generally speaking, Anthea had taken to just ignoring people and walking away from them if her friends weren't there to act as a shield for her, but on this particular day that plan wouldn't exactly work - primarily because it was the end of the day and Anthea was waiting outside for Dick, who was picking her up for their bi-weekly sibling coffee date, as he liked to call it.

She was trying to just ignore them, in the hopes that the two classmates who had decided to descend on her like vultures would just give up and leave her alone. So far, it was not working.

(She hadn't really thought that it would work, but she also wasn't sure what else she _could_ do, aside from straight up running away and trying to hide in a classroom until Dick texted her that he was there. Even then she was pretty sure wouldn't work because they'd just follow her, and it was unlikely any of her friends were lingering around. If they were, they would have been waiting with her and she knew it.)

At this point, Anthea genuinely had no idea what they were even going on about. She also hadn't given them any indication that she was even listening to them. Maybe she was hoping they'd get bored of talking at her and leave, or she was just going to keep on ignoring them until she saw Dick's car pull up. Then she could run away and it wouldn't be running _away_ so much as it would be running _to_ her big bother (which... really didn't sound much better, honestly.)

"- should work on the next group project together, Thea! Then you could invite us over to work on it," the other girl stifled a giggle and continued, "Dick wouldn't find it weird if his sisters friend was around a bunch, right?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Anthea had apparently reached her limit of being able to ignore whatever bullshit came out of her classmates mouth.

She hadn't meant to say anything aloud, but apparently the other girl was just waiting for _any_ acknowledgement that Anthea had heard anything she said.

"I mean, he wouldn't, right? I know I'm a few years younger, but that's fine. I can wait if that's an issue," another giggle, from both the girl talking (Rachel, Anthea was pretty sure) and her more quiet friend (Layla? Laylia? Anthea wasn't sure.)

"I'll work with you on the project if that's what you want," she said, "but I'm not inviting anyone to come over and work on it." If she was going to invite anyone over, it would be Misha, maybe Abbey or Emil. She definitely wouldn't even _think_ of inviting some classmate she barely knew over - especially when that someone had admitted they just wanted to try and flirt with her oldest brother.

Rachel frowned, while Layla (Leia? Or maybe it was Leighanne?) let out a disgruntled noise.

"Just because you're a a Wayne now doesn't mean you're better than us, Thea," Rachel rolled her eyes, and really, that was real rich coming from someone who was blatantly trying to suck up to her because her last name now had 'Wayne' in it.

"That isn't what I meant at all?" Anthea mumbled, looking away from her classmates, barely containing the urge to roll her own eyes.

Leah - Laylee, whatever her name was - was clearly about to say something else when all three heard a car pull up.

A car Anthea thankfully recognized, and a wave of relief washed over her as she realized it.

"Anthy!" Dick called out as soon as he was out of the car, crossing the handful of feet between the car and the benches Anthea had been waiting near quickly.

He pulled her into a one armed hug before pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

She'd quickly learned that Dick was easily the most physically affectionate one in the family, and honestly? She loved it. Once he realized she was okay with it, he was all the time hugging her or otherwise making sure she was close. In return, if they were watching a movie, or just sitting on one of the couches in a siting room or the library, Anthea always sat next to him, which almost always resulted in her being cuddled up to his side. Her dad had hugged her, kissed her forehead sometimes, but he'd also been busy a lot, and Misha was the only other person she'd really been close to up until the Wayne's. Misha wasn't really the hugging type, so Anthea was... maybe a little touched starved. Her oldest brother helped with that a lot.

"Sorry I'm late, little flower. Dami's in a bit of a mood, so had to handle that first," he squeezed her a little - she'd probably get the story later, especially if it was one of Damian's moods where he was more likely than normal to insult her or Tim.

Anthea nodded, leaning into Dick's side a little more than she normally would, given they were in public. Certain classmates were stressing her out though (and staring, _so much_ staring) so she figured it was justified (and it's not like Dick would care.)

Her oldest brother looked over at the two, as if he had just noticed them. She had to hold back a laugh at the startled noise the pair made when Dick acknowledged them.

"Ah, are you Anthy's friends?" He asked, looking from them to her. She gave the smallest of shrugs - one the other girls wouldn't notice, but Dick, who had his arm around her shoulders, would feel it.

"They're just classmates," Anthea said, at the same time that Rachel gave an enthusiastic "yes, we're friends! Close friends!"

There was an awkward pause, before Dick let out a quiet "okay then."

Rachel cleared her throat, like she was going to say something else, but Dick turned his attention back to Anthea before she could even open her mouth.

"Anywhere special you wanted to go today?" He asked her, subtlety angling her towards the car, and away from nosey, annoying Gotham Academy students.

"Can we get bubble tea today? Abbey mentioned it this morning and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it." Slight exaggeration maybe, but not that much of one if she was honest.

Dick didn't even try to hide his laugh, but he nodded.

"Of course. Whatever you want." Then he turned his attention to Rachel and her 'L' named friend (maybe it was Elle? Anthea couldn't tell you, and honestly, she didn't really care that much.) "I'm going to have to steal my baby sister away now, if that's alright." Though his choice of words it made it seem like a question, he didn't actually give either of them any time to reply before steering her towards the car, talking about something Jason had said earlier in the day.

He paused as they got to the car, opening the passenger side door for her.

"You okay?" He nodded back towards the other girls slightly.

Anthea nodded, "I'm okay," and she meant it.


	2. Chapter 2

After Dick had picked her up from school the other day, a fair few of Anthea's classmates seemed to have decided that it wasn't worth it to bother (read: harass) her about her new family members. At the very least they weren't bothering her nearly as much as they had been for the first week or so after her adoption had been made public.

For the most part they were leaving her alone now - although that only seemed to apply to her actual classmates. Everyone else at school still seemed to think it was alright to just walk up and start asking her whatever they wanted to know about the Wayne family. It was enough for her to be glad Abbey and her other friends were more than happy to wait with her after school. They either waited with her while waiting for their own rides, until their bus was about to leave or until Anthea was picked up, in Abbey and Emil's cases, since they lived in the dorms.

A few times she had voiced that they didn't have to wait with her if they didn't want to, but Abbey had shut that down before Anthea had even finished saying it aloud. Her friends were more than happy to wait for Alfred with her, and they made sure she was well aware of that.

(They were also more than happy to chase away annoying and nosy students, Emil especially. He had way too much fun with that, in Anthea's opinion. But she couldn't really complain about it. He was the weird vaguely goth kid who liked playing Dungeons and Dragons to most of the school anyway, so it wasn't hard for him to chase people away when he wanted to.)

As it was, today she got the weirdest sense of deja vu while waiting for Alfred, and was only half surprised when Abbey stopped in the middle of a sentence and nudged Emil.

"Is it going to be a thing where I'm the one who notices when one of them comes to pick you up instead of the butler?" Anthea frowned, ready to point out that Alfred was much more than just ' _the butler_ ' when Abbey's words caught up to her and she realized what her friend had actually said.

Never let it be said that Dick and Jason weren't similar in some of the weirdest ways.

Emil let out a quiet snort of a laugh as Abbey made a little squeaky noise when Anthea waved at Jason.

"You guys really need to learn to tell me when you're going to pick me up instead of Alfie," she said, once Jason was close enough to have a conversation at a normal volume. She knew when Dick would be picking her up for their bi-weekly sibling date, but he'd still randomly be the one to pick her up occasionally, with absolutely no mention of it before he got there.

Jason looked confused for a moment before realizing she was talking about Dick and laughed.

"I'll text in advance next time," he promised, though whether or not he remembered... they'd see.

" _Thank you_ ," Anthea shook her head a little, "at least _one_ of you gets it."

A glance over at her friends told her that her second oldest brother was the only one that got it. Did she mind the surprise of one of her brothers, or Bruce on one occasion, picking her up? No, not really. Would she like to know in advance because sometimes they took longer than Alfred did and that stressed her out a bit? _Yes_.

"Unless I'm actually trying to surprise you, I'll make sure you know it's me picking you up - even if I only decided I was kidnapping you for the afternoon like, ten minutes before Alfie would have left to get you." That had Anthea giggling a little, but she nodded.

"Is Bruce aware that you're kidnapping me for the afternoon?" She asked, mostly teasing.

It was amazing how far her relationship with Jason had come. While she would say it was the easiest for her to talk to Tim, she would also say she was probably the closest to Jason now, though Tim was a very close second. They were both easy to be around, and made her comfortable, Tim was just more like a friend while Jason was the big brother she hadn't known she wanted (she adored her father more than anything, but when she was little she had wanted siblings, not understanding that if her mother hadn't died, she probably would have been a big sister within a few years.)

"I'm sure Alfred will have told him?" Anthea giggled again, mostly at how unsure Jason sounded, but nodded. It was true. Since Jason would have needed to tell Alfred, Alfred would definitely make sure Bruce was aware, so he didn't worry when Anthea wasn't home when she normally would be. Even if they didn't know exactly where she was, the fact that she was with Jason was enough to not be concerned (of course that went for all of her siblings, but she normally only went places with Dick. She only really hung out with Tim or Cass around the manor.)

"Uh... Anthy?" She blinked before looking over at Abbey and Emil. She'd almost forgotten they were there. Thankfully they weren't at all annoyed by this, but rather amused. Emil _especially_. Anthea was not at all surprised by that. He was kind of weird, and she loved him for it.

"Right," she said, gesturing to her friends while facing her brother. "These are my friends, Abbey and Emil. Abbes, Em, this is my brother Jason." Anthea knew they knew who he was, because Abbey had admitted to her before that she sort of followed the Wayne's online and had for a while, though she had also told her that she'd stop if it made Anthea uncomfortable as soon as Anthea had told her who her foster family was. It was a little weird, but Anthea didn't mind all too much. There was a lot of the Wayne's life that was in the public eye, and there was nothing Anthea could do to stop that. Sure, she didn't particularly want _her_ life out in the public, but she also knew there would be some compromise there. The Wayne's were kind of famous and she was a Wayne now. She'd get used to it. Eventually. Probably.

Of course, being aware of Jason Todd-Wayne was completely different from knowing Jason, Anthea's adoptive brother, and they all knew that. She'd known Emil long enough to know that his opinion of her wouldn't change because of her new family, and Abbey was proving time and time again that she was an amazing friend and almost nothing like what Anthea had originally assumed. Bruce adopting her wouldn't change anything, and hadn't, aside from her friends being all that more protective of her.

"It's really nice to meet you!" Said Abbey, and she was probably not exaggerating how excited she sounded. Jason would be the first of Anthea's siblings that she actually met. The first time Dick had picked her up, Abbey had noticed him, but Anthea had also beelined it out of there as quickly as she could. Every other time he picked her up Abbey was either not around, or Anthea noticed his car first and left before he could get out for her to introduce her friends to him. It would happen eventually she was sure, it just hadn't yet.

Emil, on the other hand, smiled a smile that Anthea did not like the implications of. "Anthy has told us lots about you," he said, which was a total lie. Or, partial lie at least. Anthea had talked about the family, sure, but not that much, and she certainly hadn't spoken at length about Jason... or, she was pretty sure she hadn't?

Okay, so maybe she talked more about her adoptive family than she realized. It wasn't like that was a bad thing, and anyone who got her talking about them to 'try and learn things about the Wayne's' would be sorely disappointed - unless they wanted details about how Anthea's way to get Tim to go to bed was to steal his coffee, give it to Bruce or Alfred and then sit on him until he promised to go to bed, or how if you got him on the right topic (usually books) Jason would talk for hours if you let him, or that Dick made amazing hot chocolate that was excellent for both movie nights and after nightmares.

"She has, has she?" Anthea flushed, and quickly moved towards Jason, making like she was going to try and push him back towards the car (which would absolutely _not work_ and she knew it, but was she going to try anyway? _Absolutely_.)

"Weren't you kidnapping me for the afternoon? Let's go with that, yes?" Jason gave an affirmative hum, while also clearly trying not to laugh at her, but he let himself be pushed away from her friends.

"Bye Anthy's friends," Jason looked back at them over his shoulder, and then down at Anthea 'pushing' him along and smiled.

"Bye Anthy~" Emil called after them, laughing. "Have fun with your brother~"

"Goodbye Emil. Bye Abbey!" Anthea called back, not as loudly, but Emil and Abbey clearly heard her, if their laughter was anything to go by.

Jason at least waited until they were both in the car before actually laughing, prompting Anthea to pout and whine lightly.

"I'm not laughing at you, Anthy. Your friends are amusing." Anthea narrowed her eyes at him, not quite believing that he wasn't laughing at her too, but she couldn't argue that. Her friends were... something. "It's nice to see you're comfortable around them too," he added, quieter. Anthea out a near silent "oh," before smiling.

"They're not you guys or Misha, but they're pretty great." Unfortunately her family hadn't been able to (properly) meet Misha yet. Dick had driven her over to Misha's place a few days after her adoption was made public, and then picked her up a few hours later, after Anthea had dinner with her best friend and his family. Aside from that, and Anthea putting him on speaker phone when Tim had been with her while Misha called one night, Misha hadn't met her adoptive family yet. Bruce had told her she could invite him over for dinner, but Anthea didn't want to make him meet everyone at once. If there was one thing she could change about the first day she'd been fostered, it was that. She loved them unconditionally, but gods, the Wayne's were a _lot_ to handle, especially at first. She'd mostly met them separately, no more than a few at a time over the course of the day, but they were still _a lot_.

She'd find a way to introduce Misha to them one or two at a time, and then maybe she'd be willing to invite him to the manor for dinner. Maybe being the keyword here.

"So, where are you kidnapping me to this time?" She asked, at least in part to try and change the subject, but she was curious. She and Jason rarely did anything outside of the manor. Mostly Jason suggested her books and they read together, or they just sat in silence while they both worked on homework. She'd gone out with Jason before, but mostly it was Dick that ended up taking her out - bi-weekly sibling date and all. Of course, Anthea didn't go out as often as she used to - she used to spend a lot of time at the library and would go to Misha's house all the time, and they'd often go to a coffee shop or wander around the mall, normal teenager things.

After moving into the Wayne manor, Anthea had very rarely gone anywhere that wasn't school. There were exceptions, obviously, and she had been spending more time places that weren't Gotham Academy or Wayne manor as time went on, but well... Anthea was shy and had social anxiety. Being a Wayne drew a lot of attention she wasn't comfortable with. She was getting used to it on social media, and it was easier to deal with then - if someone made her uncomfortable, all she had to do was block them and that was that.

The only way to 'block' someone in real life was a restraining order, and unless one specific person continued to harass her constantly, Anthea would never consider that as an option.

She was getting more and more comfortable with the idea of going more public places with her siblings - people were going to stare, she knew that, whether at her or them, but she also knew her siblings wouldn't let anyone bother her (aside from Damian, but it wasn't like she was going to go anywhere with him unless Bruce or Dick was there anyway. Ignoring that they didn't really get along, it was unlikely Anthea would go anywhere with him honestly. What could she say - she was a teenage girl and Damian was her twelve year old adoptive brother.)

"Anywhere you want to go?" Jason asked, giving a little shrug. "I didn't really think that far ahead. Can't I just want to hang out with my lil' sis?"

Anthea narrowed her eyes again - she had a feeling she was either being kept away from the manor, or Jason had a reason to want to be out of the manor for a few hours, but... she'd take it.

Her bi-weekly sibling dates with Dick tended to be them going to a cafe or restaurant, usually some family run place or just a fast food place, nothing fancy. The last time Jason had picked her up, they'd gone out to a few bookstores - the ones Jason preferred, small used bookstores rather than at the mall. Anthea had enjoyed that a lot, though she also had a pile of books her brother had recommended that she was trying to work her way though, and she'd rather get through most of them before adding any more to the list.

"We could go to the mall?" She wasn't really hungry, and like she said, she had too many books to bother with right now. She was... getting used to the fact that being a Wayne meant having lots of money and that Anthea was more than welcome to spend some of it. Even before being adopted Bruce had made sure she had money whenever she left the manor, even if she was just going to school - just in case she and her friends wanted to hang out after school or something, she assumed. Or it was just his way of giving her a little bit of money at a time, she wasn't sure.

Either way, she had a lot money that had been given to her by Bruce and almost nothing to do with it. After her adoption, Bruce had present her with a debit card and told her he'd set her up a bank account, so most of that money had gone straight into the bank, but it was also obvious Bruce had put... a lot of money into the account when he'd set it up for her. She felt a bit bad about not doing anything with it, if she was honest. Didn't help that Dick always paid when they were out on their sibling dates.

Jason nodded slowly, before giving a little shrug and starting the car.

"Whatever you want, I guess. Anything in mind or just want to wander around and see if we find anything we want to buy?" On the drive over they made a tentative list of stores to actually go into and ones they'd avoid. Neither one of them had anything they really needed or desperately wanted to buy, but it didn't hurt to have some idea of stores they might find things they'd like in.

Walking around the mall with her brother wasn't too bad on her anxiety. She was used to doing things like this with Misha, Emil and some other friends from before she started attending Gotham Academy. Sure, people were a little more likely to stare at her now - pink hair and all - but she doubted many people would really recognize her as Bruce Wayne's newest adopted kid. If they did, Jason was there to chase them away, which was enough to keep her from getting too anxious or nervous about it. When her and Dick were at cafes and stuff, people either didn't recognize them or realized Dick wouldn't let them bother her - the fact that her eldest brother was a cop probably helped there a little, no lie. Jason was known for not putting up with people's shit though, so she was pretty sure it would be about the same.

They got through about two stores before Anthea ended up with Jason's jacket draped over her shoulders, her own sweater apparently being a bit too lightweight for the malls air conditioning. They were in a book store (surprise, surprise) when they split up for the first time in their little trip. Jason went to get a book while Anthea got distracted by the stationary section of the store.

She was mostly just looking at the notebooks, trying to decide if she could _actually_ use a new one. She could certainly use some new pens, but did she really need a new notebook?

Anthea was all but lost in thought when she heard the telltale sign of a photographer. The _click_ of a camera shutter caused her to turn around, wide eyed, to find the most stereotypically looking reporter glancing down at the back of a camera before lifting it back up to their eye. She immediately turned away, arms coming up to hug herself, clutching Jason's jacket closer to her.

Right. Just her luck that the first time she's left alone for more than two seconds outside of the manor (and not at school) some paparazzi finds her. Of course.

She didn't look up from the floor as she moved away from the stationary section, not wanting to know if people were ignoring the person taking photographs of a teenager, or if they were staring and just not doing anything. She was going to find her brother, and Jason would chase them away, and then they could go _home_ because Anthea was very on edge and would very much like to be out of the mall before anxiety turned to panic and she had an anxiety attack.

"Miss Wayne, Miss Wayne," she heard behind her as she picked up her pace, not quite speed walking but certainly walking faster than she normally would. She didn't have to go very far, only looking up from the floor enough that she wouldn't run into anyone, but not enough that she would potentially have to make eye contact with anyone. Jason hadn't been too far away, and when she spotted him, Anthea practically walked into him.

"Anthy?" Jason sounded confused as Anthea wrapped her arms around his waist and all but buried her head in his chest. That confusion didn't last very long as he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and spotted the photographer who had followed Anthea. She could tell that confusion had turned to anger as soon as he realized why she was upset.

There was another click of the camera, and Anthea pressed herself a little closer to Jason; he responded in kind, hugging her a little tighter.

"Miss Wayne, Miss Wayne." She wasn't sure if the photographer was an idiot and so single mindedly focused on bothering her that they didn't notice Jason, or if they were purposefully ignoring him. Either way, Jason wasn't impressed.

"Hey asshole, the fuck do you think you're doing?" It seemed very much like the photographer just hadn't really noticed Jason, somehow. It was almost impressive considering a) Anthea had walked right into Jason and he was the one facing the photographer, and b) the fact that Jason was like, an entire foot taller than she was.

Reporters could be very persistent though, which was something Anthea was quickly learning, and very much disliking.

The photographer stumbled over their words, either not sure what to say in response or just thrown off by Jason's bluntness.

"Can't think of a less creepy way to say 'following a teenager around and taking pictures of her'?" That prompted a small laugh from Anthea, though she didn't even consider turning around to see the photographers reaction. She greatly appreciated Jason, and she knew exactly what he was doing, but drawing attention and trying to publicly shame the photographer meant being loud and drawing attention to them as well. Anthea would much rather _not_ see how many eyes were on them.

There was a grumbled sentence that sounded like "you're in a public place, it's not illegal." Anthea hated that she knew that was true too. There was always the risk when any of the Wayne's went out that people would take photos of them, and as long as they were in public, it _wasn't_ illegal. People trying to sneak into the manor's grounds to try and take pictures of the siblings, or the times reporters had been camping outside of Gotham Academy in the first days after her adoption - well, that rather illegal (and, you know, _incredibly creepy_.)

"That might be true," Jason was pretty much speaking through his teeth, as pissed off by the fact that it wasn't illegal as Anthea was uncomfortable about it, "but you're still harassing my little sister. You wanna argue over the legality of that? I'm sure our dads lawyers would be happy to." The photographer paled a little - being threatened with the Wayne family lawyers tended to do that to most people.

Jason patted Anthea's shoulder a little, probably more to get her attention before he spoke to her, but it was a comforting gesture too. "Is there anything you wanted to buy, or do you just wanna go home?" Anthea thought for a moment before shaking her head and pulling away from Jason some.

"Home. Let's just go home." Jason nodded, letting her pull away from hugging him but still keeping her close. The gentle look he gave her turned hard again as he glared at the photographer. "Word of advice asshole, most people don't take nicely to having their picture taken without permission. Get a different job." He looked up then and scowled a little at the people who were staring. It seemed to get most people to stop staring, but Jason was quick to start moving and pulled Anthea out of the store.

She tucked herself as close to her brother as she could while not impeding their ability to keep walking. Neither of them said anything, although Anthea's mind was moving a million miles an hour. She felt like she should have known that going to the mall was a bad idea (even if no one else had bothered them up until now.) She should have stuck with Jason (even though being in a slightly different part of the store shouldn't have been an issue.) She could have said something, anything, to defend herself instead of immediately running to find her brother.

Anthea blinked, and almost went cross-eyed trying to look at the finger that was poking her forehead.

"I can practically hear you overthinking, Anthy." She frowned a little, mostly because she hadn't really realized there were out of the mall and by the car already. "People like that asshole will always find a way to bother us, or whoever they're after. You could never leave the manor and they'd just lurk outside to try and get a glimpse. You can't let them scare you into not going places you want to," Jason frowned a little, like he wasn't sure that was how he'd wanted to word it. She got what he was going for though.

"I think... I think it just surprised me more than anything?" She admitted. "I don't like the idea of someone randomly taking my picture, but it was mostly surprise?" And the fact that he came right up to her to take the photo instead of taking it from further away. If she hadn't been aware of someone taking a photo, she'd probably be a bit uncomfortable when made aware of it later, but she was pretty sure she'd get over that faster.

Jason didn't quite look like he bought it, but he didn't press the matter further. Maybe he'd bring it up again later, or tell Dick or Cass (since they were the most likely to talk to her about it) but for now he let it go. Anthea was glad.

She knew she had every right to be uncomfortable with the sudden fame being a Wayne brought her, but that wasn't really what it was. Being a Wayne was fine - people treating them like celebrities was annoying, but she understood it, mostly. It wasn't that she was _uncomfortable_ , it was that her anxiety was ramped up to 11 all the time because of it. She knew her pink hair made it easier for people to recognize her as the newest Wayne kid, though that wasn't going to make her dye it back.

"I'll get use to it," she mumbled, wrinkling her nose a little.

"You shouldn't _have_ to," Jason pointed out, sounding annoyed more than angry. "B being rich as fuck doesn't make us _famous_ , and people should stop treating us like it does."

She nodded a little, but only just. "You can't make my anxiety go away, Jay-ge." The honorific caught both of them off guard, but Jason didn't comment on it (he'd tease her for it later though, she knew it.) He didn't argue with her point either, but made a face that Anthea took as 'but they shouldn't make it worse.' She had to agree there, but she also knew she was only one person and she doubted she could make anyone change their mind. Maybe some day people would stop treating the Wayne's like celebrities, but until that day came, at least she knew she had her family to help with the anxiety.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea why this chapter is so much longer than the first one (I mean really, if I cut out the part where Jason picks Anthy up it would probably be about the same length as the last one but who really cares.) This is probably why I rarely write chaptered things though, rather making them separate fics, solely because they end up completely different lengths and that bothers me for... some reason.


End file.
